[Guide] Player controlled Mortars for PR

[Anderson29]

as a tactic, im fine with whatever a person can come up with to win the game without cheating, "thinking outside the box" type deal...im cool with. as for this or many other things being or not being realistic....well pr has military advisers for a reason.....they can debate it.
lets keep this thread related to mortar tips, advice, and tactics.
thx
andy

[Predator.v2]

Some hints about mortaring from me (my clans main mortar):

-Find yourself a quiet but still good reachable spot for your mortars.
It shouldnt be further away then 1-2 mins with a transport truck/ammo car from your
repairstation. And you should always keep in mind, that you just got 1500m range. This is very important on 4km maps. Also dont feel ashamed to take one transport truck / ammo car for your squad. Usually you got several at map starting and most of the time you will just need one for the whole match. No ammo, no mortar support.

-Better find yourself a designated mortar spotter.
If you are playing in a pr clan and got infantry squads running around the map, they can take over that part, but i made the best experience with 3 men running the mortars (2 men firing, 1 resupplying [they can cycle]) and me spotting.

-Dont waste rounds.
For example, you are a good mortar squadleader and you can give exact coordinates and distances, why firing 22 rounds of airbursts (2 full mortars) on 1 man? Give your men orders about the fire mission. Type of ammunition, number of rounds per target, spread. Yes spread. Sometime you just want your mortars to hit one damn bunker with a fob within, sometimes you just want to flatten a whole wood. Your mortarcrew just good a calc and a very limited sight, give them informations about your target (Just fire 5 HE rounds on the marker / I need a full spread airburst attack on the marker. Fire even 50m around it)

-Calculate the right distance / elevation.
Less is more important than the right distance (next to proper spotting). Nothing is more embarrassing than 100m off the target impacts ("Hey guys, you heard that?" "Yeah, these are mortar impacts in the wood 100m left of us." "Are they trying to hit us?" "Probably, cant see any friendlies near this area, just us." "Bah, noob mortars!"). There are tools to calc this, but i will provide you with some ingame options.
Well to get the right elevation arc, you need the right distance and the right elevation. About elevation, you got 3 choices. First is to ignore the elevation. This may work on mainly flatten maps or at short ranges (would say less than 700m). Second one is guessing (again calls for a good spotter), will most of the time be the better choice than ignoring. Third choice is mainly for clan matches, when you are planning your mortar spots. Let an heli land next to your mortars and write down your elevation (taken from the heli pilot spot). Then send him to different spots and let him transmit his elevation.

Now the distance. No, the distance shown at squadleaders or mortar capslock menus is not enough. It can be +24m or -24m off your target. And always remember the first 2-4 shots are the most importants. Usually everyone took cover after 20 seconds of mortar fire. Again you got tools for this, but i found a really useful and good trick to guess the distance right to a few meters. Unfortunately you have to stay with your mortars, but then you can take over the resupplying and just have to find someone else spotting. First of all place yourself between your mortars. Then wait for a proper target f.e. "mortars fire on that triangle building in b5k4"). Now you put an observe marker on that target and take the distance from the capslock menu. Next you take your glasses/gtld and put a proper mortarmarker on that target (dont forget to make one little step forwards, once you lined up with the 2d marker). Now you got a mortar marker, deviating a bit from your observe marker and all you got to do, is to guess the distance between each others. Remember that on 1/2/4km maps one keypad is 25/50/100m big and your deviation cant be more than 25m. Usually its enough to say -20,-10,0,+10,+20. At last give your mortars the exact distance plus your elevation guess and have fun hiting the right targets. With some training, you can do these steps within seconds and they can increase your mortar effectiveness by a lot!

[Ambush]

How important is the height? When in Muttrah, the battlefeild is pretty flat untill you need to shell a mountain position. Should I be adding some height to my shells? What is the disadvantage to leaving the gauge at zero? Will the shells not go off? I feel like the height hasn't been a factor, but I may be wrong. Any suggestions? And if people join my MORTAR squad and are non responsive should I give them the boot, or if people not in my squad get into my mortar should I allert the Admin? I don't want to be a butt head but I don't need to miss-fire on my friendlys. Any suggestions?

[Anderson29]

How important is the height?

not very important.

When in Muttrah, the battlefeild is pretty flat untill you need to shell a mountain position. Should I be adding some height to my shells?

u can, its really user preference and practices makes perfect.

What is the disadvantage to leaving the gauge at zero?

your rounds will be off target slightly, but its not like we have the exact distance to the target in-game right.?.?.?.that's why i choose to leave it at zero. i go out and observe. and if rounds miss i can correct them. again, user preference.

Will the shells not go off?

we discussed this earlier in this thread, they are proximity rounds, meaning they explode when they get close to the ground. height isn't a factor.

I feel like the height hasn't been a factor, but I may be wrong. Any suggestions?

play around with it in a local server that you can create on your own. or join an empty online server that is running the map you want to test it in. edit: if you are alone in a server, first, request to be commander, second, get the officer kit, third, resign and become a SL again, forth, build your fob and mortars. i do this sometimes and it works for me.

And if people join my MORTAR squad and are non responsive should I give them the boot, or if people not in my squad get into my mortar should I allert the Admin?

personally if they dont respond to me via voip or in-game sqd chat txt messages i give them the boot. do what you got to do to be an effective mortar squad. if someone not in ur sqd hops in a mortar because you are reloading them or something like that, i personally would alert an admin. if he hops in because your sqd is not doing its job effectively then shame on you, and if your not effective, you might benefit from rereading my original post in this thread.

I don't want to be a butt head but I don't need to miss-fire on my friendlys. Any suggestions?

keep an eye on the map or designate someone to and control your squad. they should never be off the mortar unless reloading or under attack.

[ShadowZane]

Quick question: (may only be me)
How can I as mortarman see the distance to target?
I already tried looking on the Squad tab and the marker but guessing doesn't seem to be quite the right choice

[Predator.v2]

Get on the mortar calc menu (for blufor mortars default key 4, for opfor mortars default key 2) and open the squad menu. Only then you will see the distance to your current squad marker. You will see the distance in steps of 50m.

[RealKail]

I really think they should put the distance in incriments of 25m, 50m leaves waaaaaaaaaay too much room for you to overshoot/undershoot your target. Sure, I can alternately try estimating a more approximate distance by looking at my location with in the grid and relating it to the target's location in its grid, but that's just adding a bit more time to my job.

[Anderson29]

edited my first post for the scanners that dont read entire post.

[Lord Jesus]

quick question, are Air burst rounds more effective to use when the enemy is in a possible building. I remember getting hit by shrapnel one time when I was inside of a T building by a window when Air burst mortars were landing around me.

[Anderson29]

well in-game air-burst(aka prx - proximity) is more effective in buildings and city structures. air-burst's main use should be on infantry and impact should be on fobs and destroyable structures. but very rarely do you get a target description unless the observer requests a certain type of round for you to use, or your SL is out observing and tells you specifically. your best bet is to have 1 mortar man go all time air-burst and the other go all time impact.

[Anderson29]

insurgency map boundaries
1-5

[Anderson29]

insurgency map boundaries
6-10

[Anderson29]

aas maps
1-5

[Anderson29]

aas maps
6-10

[Anderson29]

AAS
11-14

[Anderson29]

and 1 more should do it
thinking about deleting some of the 4km ones since the building in dod issue doesn't really come into play on those maps. if i need the room i will.

feel free to right click on the maps and save them to your computer.

[xambone]

apparently you've never been to the repair station on Muttrah

[Anderson29]

i did but the flag wasnt captured...guess i could capture it and mark it as well. unless its so small of a zone its not noticeable then it wouldnt matter....but i will check it out. thx for bringing it to my attention xambone.

fyi i swam and walked that whole NE line as a mec soldier.

edit:
captured the flag but nothing changed....the dod is to small and doesnt effect game-play.
i thought you were suggesting it gets bigger....i am mainly concerned about places where mortars can be built inside of a DoD and marking that area so admins as well as players know where and where not to build depending upon that server's rules.
thank you.

[mangeface]

Nice guide. And great job with the maps Anderson. This will be quite useful (I lead mortar squads at times).

[Anderson29]

thanks man. now there are no more excuses for mortar sqds to be forced to tear everything down and rebuild because they were in a DoD. hope to see you in-game sometime. cia is my second home for now. i always enjoy playing with ex-military.